London & France

[PeonyWarrior]

Rated out of 20 (based on food only) with agreed Osteria Mozza = 12, Providence = 15, Addison = 18. Limited discussion to avoid tainting each other’s reviews.

W:

Pic (Valence ***). 20/20. The best restaurant in the world? Certainly the best I’ve been to. I was hooked from the first bite of chocolate focaccia with tonka bean and pink peppercorn butter. The wine list is as impressive as the food. I got the wine pairing instead, and it included wines like a 1990 La Mission Haut Brion and Chave Hermitage blanc. Also, three selections of pour over coffees, a large tea list, and rare bottles of Chartreuse and other liquors. Worth the journey for sure.

Epicure (Paris ***). 19/20. Exquisite everything. Phenomenally knowledgeable staff. They even had pour over coffee. Their cheese selection was my favorite of all the restaurants.

Le Clos Des Sens (Annecy ***). 18/20. Some of the best seafood dishes I’ve ever eaten, supplied by Lake Annecy and Lake Geneva. Enjoyed the hotel too.

Troisgros (Ouches ***). 17/20. Great, but didn’t meet expectations. Didn’t love the hotel, with ants on our bed and the staff responding that nothing can be done about it because it’s the countryside.

Core by Clare Smyth (London ***). 17/20. Very good food and experience. I will never forget their rare bottle of orange Chartreuse—something I’ve never seen before and may never see again.

Auberge Du Cep (Fleurie *). 16/20. The surprise hit of our trip. The beef was the best I’ve ever eaten. I’ll never forget its unreal flavor. The river trout was nearly as good. The smoked butter and bread course was unforgettable too. Well worth the journey through the charming Beaujolais vineyards.

Sushi Yoshinaga (Paris **). 15/20. A unique experience. The chef doesn’t have access to Japanese seafood and instead uses mostly Brittany seafood (which he teaches fishermen to kill by ikejime), along with Spanish tuna (which are already killed by ikejime for the Japanese market). The results, for me, aren’t quite as good as the top places in LA, but the novelty makes up for it.

L’Orangerie (Paris **). 15/20. Classy food, but I can’t remember anything I ate here.

Dinner by Heston Blumenthal (London **). 14/20. Well-executed food with good creativity, but nothing too special for me.

Gymkhana (London **). 14/20. Totally delicious preparations of traditional Indian dishes. Little creativity or refinement. Accordingly, below one-star Chaat in Hong Kong for me.

Trente-Trois (Paris *). 14/20. Excellent dish preparations in a quiet little room. I also enjoyed all my breakfasts here, as it was our hotel restaurant. Sometimes the staff-to-customer ratio is better than 1:1.

L’Arpège (Paris ***). 13/20. Mostly vegetarian, nearly vegan, tasting menu. Better than Eleven Madison Park for me. I was really enjoying the food and okay with this being a three Michelin star restaurant until I tasted the two desserts, which were awful, bordering on inedible. Neighboring diners hardly ate a bite of these desserts and whispered in French about them. Also — some butter, or at least oil, with the bread would have been nice.

Hide (London *). 13/20. I enjoyed everything we ordered. Good execution of sole meunière.

Lita (London *). 11/20. Good but overhyped. I found the pastas on par with Maccheroni Republique. Tiny portions.

Le Quai (Tain L’Hermitage; unstarred but in Michelin guide). 8/20. Competent casual food, nothing special.

[pomodoro]

Good eating.

@PeonyWarrior

Epicure (Paris ***). 19/20. Exquisite everything.

Good to hear they’re still going strong after Eric Frechon, their longtime chef, has left.

@PeonyWarrior

L’Arpège (Paris ***). 13/20. Mostly vegetarian, nearly vegan, tasting menu. Better than Eleven Madison Park for me. I was really enjoying the food and okay with this being a three Michelin star restaurant until I tasted the two desserts, which were awful, bordering on inedible. Neighboring diners hardly ate a bite of these desserts and whispered in French about them

Interesting…what were the desserts? Last time, I thought the desserts were excellent, on par with the meal. Profiteroles with lemon verbena cream, millefeuille with melon syrup and fig leaf ice cream, and stone fruit tartelettes.

@PeonyWarrior

Hide (London *). 13/20. I enjoyed everything we ordered. Good execution of sole meunière.

Hide is a good all rounder, nothing mindblowing, but I wish we had something like this in LA. I’ve had good breakfast, lunch, dinner, and afternoon tea at Hide, all with a decent menu executed with aplomb in a nice setting and easy to reserve. Good service and a tableside presentation of Mariage Freres for afternoon tea. For a proper afternoon tea, I like Claridge’s, but Hide’s is pretty good for an all-rounder restaurant.

[PeonyWarrior]

@pomodoro

Interesting…what were the desserts?

“Millefeuille.” Not sweet, not decadent. Hardly any richness in the puff pastry layers. Tasted like health food. Worse than any patisserie IMO.

Rhubarb with meringue. Peony dismissed it as “suan” (sour in Mandarin). So did I. It was my least favorite rhubarb dish on the trip (out of a surprising ten or so—apparently asparagus and rhubarb are in season as we ate them pretty much every meal).

@pomodoro

Hide is a good all rounder, nothing mindblowing, but I wish we had something like this in LA. I’ve had good breakfast, lunch, dinner, and afternoon tea at Hide, all with a decent menu executed with aplomb in a nice setting and easy to reserve. Good service and a tableside presentation of Mariage Freres for afternoon tea. For a proper afternoon tea, I like Claridge’s, but Hide’s is pretty good for an all-rounder restaurant.

Yeah, we would go to Hide several times a year if it were in LA. Great wine list too, with an excellent selection of English sparkling wines.

We stayed at Claridges. Didn’t get afternoon tea, but I want to give them kudos for a dreamy good chicken biryani at 5 a.m. I otherwise found room service breakfasts uninspired.